Budae Jjigae!

Today was the day I first attempted my beloved Korean budae jjigae since our return from Korea. I miss our favorite restaurant in Suwon, Nolbol, that has the best budae jjigae. I was able to get all of the ingredients for it except hot pepper paste called sunchang gochijang and kimchi. A recent trip to a Korean market solved that problem. The picture above is all the ingredients I used except I forgot to include a small potato, one clove of garlic minced and some green onions in the photo.


It was only two of us for lunch, myself and Rocketman. I used a wok to cook it in. As required in Korean cooking, I had a lot of stuff to cut up: garlic (minced), green onion, hot dogs, balogney, potato and about 1/3 of a can of SPAM.


I have an electric stove and cranked it to high (the only way Koreans cook) and added chicken stock. I brought it to a boil and added the ramyeon noodles. I cooked it a few minutes later and it was ready. It really would cook better on a tabletop gas stove like they use in Korea. I wonder if I can get one here.

I also made rice and not Minute Rice (which is the only thing I used until living in Korea) but it turned out mushy. It was always perfect in my Korean rice cooker but I left that in Korea. It was delicious. Cooking is tough for me but when I see Rocketman's face light up it is all worth it. He even does the dishes!